Android Wear BST Video

It's becoming pretty clear that smart watches are here to stay. Every major tech manufacturer and even plenty of fashion brands are all scrambling to develop the 'it' device in the space. We've seen some pretty compelling offerings so far, and while we're mostly on board, there is still one lingering problem - we don't have a standard operating system designed to actually accommodate such small screens. Enter Android Wear.

Google has designed Android Wear from the ground up to make sense on smart watches and other small form-factor wearable devices. The user interface is clean and simple, giving users a more limited but purposeful amount of data on the screen at any one time. Google has clearly borrowed a lot of the thinking and specific elements that have gone into Google Glass and shaped it to fit smart watches, but let's be clear, this is a good thing. The default functionality of the watch looks like the information and functionality smartphone users might be familiar with if they use Google Now. We see in the video things like the time and weather, call and text updates, updates on sports scores, estimated times on your morning commute, and notifications when your flight or concert is coming up.

Overall this feels like a very necessary step in the right direction for the world of smart watches and wearable gadgets as a whole. A preview version has already been sent out to developers so they can start refining and tweaking their apps for when Android Wear formally launches. Motorola has already announced a device sporting Android Wear dubbed the Moto 360. This is the prototype you see pictured in the video above, we've got to say it looks pretty fantastic. We don't know exactly which other manufacturers are going to be hopping on board, but we wouldn't be surprised to see a lot of devices announced this year running the OS.

If you want more wearable tech news, check out our article on The 10 Best Wearables if you haven't already.